Online Job Scheduling for Low‑Carbon Data Center Operation: An Information‑Energy Nexus Perspective

At the 2023 China Computing Power Conference co‑hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Government, Alibaba Cloud and North China Electric Power University received the "Best Academic Paper" award for their work titled Online Job Scheduling Scheme for Low‑Carbon Data Center Operation: An Information‑Energy Nexus Perspective .

The conference highlighted foundational theory and applied research in computing power, including general, high‑performance, intelligent computing, and applications, with five papers selected as best nationwide and Alibaba Cloud ranking first.

The collaborative paper introduces, for the first time, an online low‑carbon optimization scheduling strategy tailored to massive heterogeneous workloads in data centers. Using real business scenario data from Alibaba Cloud data centers, the strategy achieves up to 37% reduction in energy cost and 14% improvement in carbon emission cost, offering innovative pathways for operational cost and energy‑structure optimization, scaling benefits, and enhanced renewable energy consumption.

The study details a computing‑power‑electric‑grid coordinated optimization technology that schedules large volumes of computing tasks and resources to flexibly adjust data‑center electricity load across time and space. By shifting workloads from peak‑demand evening periods to daylight periods with abundant photovoltaic generation, the approach lowers both energy expenses and carbon emissions.

Alibaba Cloud and North China Electric Power University have a long‑standing partnership in data‑center research, producing multiple core patents, journal articles, and national research projects, including a groundbreaking collaborative optimization between data centers and power systems aimed at renewable energy absorption. The results were incorporated into Alibaba Group’s 2023 ESG report and contributed to several recognitions such as the Central Cyberspace Administration’s 2022 Dual‑Collaboration Typical Case, China Energy Research Society’s Top Ten Carbon‑Neutral Cases, and the Geneva International Invention Exhibition.